City council is growing concerned about the number of people looking to subdivide their properties in country residential neighbourhoods.

Two applications for rezoning properties in the Whitehorse Copper area are currently before council.

The land must be rezoned from Country Residential 1 to Country Residential 2 to allow for subdivision to meet size requirements for both lots.

City administration has recommended both applications be defeated.

"While the potential addition of two units likely will not impact the area's water supply, planning and development services has received a number of other inquiries and applications for the rezoning of properties … within this neighbourhood and in other parts of the city,” Mike Ellis, the city's acting manager of planning and development services, said at city council's standing committee meeting on Monday evening.

The report says hydrogeolocial reports should be done for the area, and that the property owners should be responsible for the costs.

The report had similar recommendations regarding concerns about how septic fields in the area would be affected by subdivision.

The recommendations caused much debate at Monday's meeting.

One of the rezoning applications currently being considered is for Carrie Stahl's 1.2-hectare property. Stahl and her family intend to subdivide the property and continue living on the northern portion of the lot.

However, with the current administrative recommendation, whether subdivision will be possible remains unclear.

Stahl told council she is "disheartened” that her application is carrying the weight of many others.

"I do know that other people are looking (at subdividing), but right now you have two applications before you,” Stahl told council. "In my situation, you have my application — my family's application — before you.”

Coun. Dave Austin agreed, noting subdivision applications are supposed to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

"I have a bit of a problem penalizing people who have made a decision to go ahead with a project based on something that might come forward,” he said.

Other councillors said that, due to the increased interest in subdividing in the area, more information is required on how the water supply will be affected and whether the land can sustain more developments.

"We've got so much action in this area right now … Maybe it's time for us (to do studies),” said Coun. Ranj Pillai. "Every time a situation comes up, we don't have the information”

Coun. Doug Graham also believes it's time for studies to be done. However, the costs should be with the city, not the property owner, he said.

"We're the ones who made this whole scenario possible by saying, ‘We'll cut the minimum lot size to 0.5 ha' without fully anticipating or without fully considering the ramifications of that change to bylaw,” he said.

Country residential neighbourhoods are not the place to be adding more housing, said Coun. Betty Irwin. In addition to impacts on the land, she said, the areas often lack services like transit, streetlights and garbage pickup.

"It's really pretty impractical because, if we're looking at densification, we should be looking at places where we have city infrastructure,” Irwin said.

"That's the most economically viable, and it makes the most sense.”

The city currently has six subdivision applications looking to create additional lots, Cathy Small, the city's subdivision and lands co-ordinator, told the Star Tuesday.

However, several other property owners are "firming up their applications,” Small said.

The applications looking to create new lots don't represent all applications for subdivision.

"Subdivision to us can also mean can also mean boundary realignment, condominium applications, those kinds of things,” Small said.

In total, the city has 12 subdivision applications. Last year, 18 subdivision applications were received, down from 24 the year before.

In April, council approved an application to rezone a Canyon Crescent land parcel so the property's owners could subdivide.

The Canyon Crescent application was the only country residential application approved so far this year, Small said.

"Everything else so far is more urban,” she said.

Council will give the two bylaws for the rezoning applications in Whitehorse Copper second reading at their meeting next Monday.